What Now?
by Fromthebottomofthepit
Summary: Akemi just married the love of her life, Hideki Ishigami. Hideki just found out that he has a half sister, throwing his newlywed life into chaos. Kaiji Akizuki is trying to move on from loving Akemi for almost his entire life. Mai Okada is just trying to pay her way through school. With the big changes, they can't help but wonder: What now? IshigamiXMC, KaijiXOC
1. Chapter 1

**Kaiji**

It was really happening. The girl he had loved since he was a kid, the only girl he'd ever loved, was getting married. Not to him, but to a robot she loved and he knew would make her incredibly happy. Knowing that didn't take away the stinging in his chest. They were in London, doing some emergency protection detailing on Akemi – the former Prime Minister's daughter who was also his long unrequited love. Now that the danger had died down, the preparations for the wedding ceremony were at full force. In less than two days he really would have to give up on her forever. No more slight hopes or last chances, no miraculous reunions. She would be Akemi Ishigami, not Akemi Ito.

It was this sorry situation that had him drowning his sorrows at the first bar he could find. The bartender could read Kaiji well enough to keep refilling his glass with strong scotch every time he finished it off. Kaiji could hold his liquor well, but he was drinking past his normal amount. One minute, Kaiji had begun recounting him and Akemi's entire non-history to the bartender, the next he felt someone shaking him out of darkness.

"Hey, idiot, get up." Kaiji opened his eyes to see his new division leader and long-time coworker, Subaru Ichiyanagi, staring down at him with disdain.

"Sorry," Kaiji said, it was as much as he could muster at the moment. From the look of things, Subaru had brought him back to their current base in London. They were both inside just by the entryway.

"You should be, I was on a long distance skype call when you dialed me yelling and useless." Subaru looked angry, but Kaiji knew that the other man was the type to always help his friends, even when it meant leaving a date.

"I'll apologize to Goto…tomorrow." Kaiji said, rubbing his aching head. It had come as a surprise to Kaiji awhile back when Subaru and Goto had gone public with their relationship. The two had known each other for so long, and had such similar personalities he wouldn't have imagined they actually held romantic feelings for each other. Nobody else seemed as shocked by the announcement as he was, though. Akemi and Mizuki said outright that they had known about Goto and Subaru. Since then, it had become clear to Kaiji that the two really were a good match, both while competing at work to working together in the apartment Subaru kept perfect.

"Yeah, well for now just focus on trying to make it to your room." Subaru said, Kaiji nodded but still really couldn't move more than that. "Hey…don't get drunk like this before the wedding, okay?"

"Deal, but I expect you to come out with me after the lovebirds take off." Kaiji answered, standing with wobbly legs.

"No," Subaru challenged solidly, making use of his incredible confidence. "Once she's married, that's it…you don't get to mope anymore."

"Harsh." Kaiji muttered. "But…I guess you're right." Moving upstairs extremely slowly, Kaiji was shocked by how Subaru's words were hitting him. But, maybe when he woke up he really would be able to move on. He had gotten over her once, for the most part, so it could happen again. As soon as he woke up.


	2. Chapter 2

**Akemi**

"Hideki, what are these boxes?" Akemi called her husband, who was in the kitchen putting away utensils. It was two weeks after their wedding and they were moving into their new place; a two bedroom apartment in Tokyo. He peered in, pushing up his glasses and looking over the boxes in question.

"Ah, those are some things that belonged to my parents, actually. They were keeping them in a storage container up till now, but I figured we might as well go through them and see if there's anything we want to keep." He said.

"Your parents? Of course we should keep it, they probably are really special things." Akemi said, extremely curious about the contents of the boxes. She didn't know much about her new husband's parents beside the fact that they had passed away when he was young. As she stared at the boxes, she heard her beloved laugh.

"If you're that curious you can go ahead and open them. I don't mind, what's yours is mine." Hideki said, causing Akemi to blush. She hadn't thought it was possible to love someone this much. She was only so curious because she always wanted to know more about him.

"Okay, then we should look through them together." She said, but moved to open the box with excitement. Suddenly, her new husband leaned over and gave her a quick peck on the lips. She looked up in shock to see him smiling down at her calmly.

"Let's get to it." He said, it made Akemi happy to see him so comfortable. There was a time when he never let himself relax. Sitting cross-legged beside each other, the newlyweds began to go through the boxes. In addition to small keepsakes there were photos; most of just his parents together but a few showing Hideki as a baby.

"Look how cute you were! You're playing with your dad's glasses in this one." Akemi exclaimed, holding a picture with a young Hideki wearing nothing but a diaper and his dad's glasses - which looked remarkably like the one's he always wore now.

Hideki blushed slightly, "This is more embarrassing then I thought it would be, maybe we should move on…"

"Not a chance." Akemi said, holding the picture close. "But maybe we should check out the other boxes."

"Good idea." Hideki said, a little too enthusiastically. "This one says 'Office' – maybe it was from my Dad's work?"

"What did he do again?" Akemi asked, as he opened the box.

"He was a lawyer, and my mom was a regular office worker."

Akemi watched as Hideki pulled out a wooden box with a carving on the front and a large compilation of filing folders. The folders were filled with client information, they discovered, but the box was locked.

"There's no key," He said, peering into the cardboard box again. Akemi was only more intrigued by the locked box.

"Maybe we can break the lock," She said, taking the box out of his hands and peering at the keyhole.

"You…always say the most surprising things." Hideki said, holding his hands out the take the box back, "I'll take it to the locksmith tomorrow and see if he can open it." He set the small box onto their coffee table before turning back to Akemi with a smirk.

"What?" She asked, butterflies in her stomach.

"Well, I was thinking that we've done quite enough unpacking for today." Akemi gasped slightly when he picked her up bridal-style. Not to be outdone, she kissed him firmly.

"I agree."


	3. Chapter 3

**Hideki**

After finishing work as early as possible, Hideki headed out on his mission. The wooden box that was in his father's things was a mystery that he was eager to solve. Looking through his parent's things had reminded him of the life they gave him, and made him more curious to learn about them. Curiosity he hadn't felt since he was a child. Perhaps that was due to his new wife, and the family that they had just started together. He wondered if his parents had been this happy when they had first gotten married, and how they felt when he was born.

A bell chimed as he entered the locksmith's shop, causing the man sitting at the counter to look up from his newspaper. "What can I help you with?" The stout man asked.

"I was hoping," Ishigami pulled the box out from the tote he was carrying it in, "You could open this." The owner held out his hands and looked at the lock. Without saying anything else he pulled out a metal pick and began trying to moving it around in the keyhole. To occupy himself Ishigami began to examine the shop, which was fairly empty with the exception of various keys and different metal locks. He heard a slight pop, and looked over to see the box open.

"Would you like a skeleton key?" The man asked.

"Please." Ishigami decided it would be better to look through the box together with Akemi when they got home. As he pulled out his wallet to pay the man, however, he noticed a picture lying on the top. He picked up to look at it closer, a sinking feeling in his chest.

It was a picture of his father with a child, roughly the same age as he was in the very picture Akemi had loved so much of him wearing his father's glasses. But it wasn't him, it was a little girl. Looking at the back of the picture it read 'Takeshi + Mai' and it was dated from when Hideki was 7. He grabbed the next object, a child's drawing, the kind that so many make to show their family. There were three figures, parents and a little girl. In barely legible letters it said 'To Daddy' in the corner. Was this real? Was his father this girl's…

"ir? Sir?" Hideki was shocked out of his daze by the store clerk, who was looking at him like he'd gone crazy.

"Excuse me." He paid the man and got out of there as quickly as he could. After finally having a family he could trust, was what little he knew about his father a lie?

He got home in a daze, not remembering the journey there.

"Welcome home!" Akemi called out cheerfully as he walked in, she came to give him a welcome kiss but stopped short when she saw him.

"What happened?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Kurosawa**

From behind a pair of sunglasses and a newspaper, Toru Kurosawa watched the door to the detective agency while his coworker, Seiji Goto, watched him.

"Why are we here? We have actual work to do that doesn't involve tailing our boss." Goto asked.

"Come on, Chief Ishigami's been acting strange and you've noticed it too. And, a detective agency? What does he need to do that he can't with the police system?" Kurosawa argued, "What if it's an affair?"

"An affair by whom? Akemi's in there with him!"

"Shhhh, I think they're coming out!" Kurosawa tried to stop the scolding from progressing as the door to the run-down agency opened. Instead of the Ishigamis, however, two men came out with scowls on their faces. To his surprise, they approached him and Goto.

"Excuse us, sirs, but would you mind explaining why you are hanging around our workplace?" A blonde man asked. He was smiling in a way that didn't reach his eyes and gave Kurosawa the creeps.

"We didn't mean to cause any trouble, we're just on our way." Kurosawa said, smiling back in an innocent way. The two men didn't seem convinced.

"Then you can head on your way now." The other man, a redhead, said. He glared at them outright. From behind him, Goto sighed.

"Then, let's go Kiri…"

"What are you two doing here?" Kurosawa gulped at the familiar voice, more intimidated by it than the two men who had come outside to get rid of him to. He hesitantly looked over to see Ishigami glaring at him, looking absolutely furious. "Boss. What a coincidence, we were just about to, uh…"

"Spy on me? Blow off your work?" Ishigami asked, looking down his nose and causing Kurosawa to hide behind Goto for protection. By Ishigami, Akemi just looked slightly amused, which meant she wasn't about to save them. That was scary in its own way.

"You know them?" The redheaded detective asked.

"Yes, thank you Nanoharu-san, Wakaba-san, we'll be in your debt from now on." Akemi said, bowing slightly. Ishigami followed suit, and the two headed back inside hesitantly.

"Sorry, Chief. We did follow you." Goto said, seriously. Kurosawa glared at him, knowing that he would receive no support and much suffering for this.

"So, will you tell us why you're here?" Kurosawa asked, not giving up on the mission.

"Kurosawa, instead of gossiping, I suggest you return to the office as soon as possible. I've suddenly thought of a great deal of paperwork you have to get done tonight. The reports from all our recent work with the MPD Special Unit 1 should do the trick." Ishigami said, Kurosawa shuddered, but knew the best thing to do would be not to argue.

"Then…I better get going, come on Goto-san." Kurosawa grabbed Goto by the arm and started walking back to the office, but looked back to see Ishigami and Akemi talking with serious expressions. It had to be about their visit, what was it they had come here for? There was something here, and he wanted to know what.


	5. Chapter 5

**Ishigami**

In addition to the first picture with his father and the drawing, the box contained a lot of similar items, even more pictures of the little girl named Mai. Together with Akemi, Hideki accepted that his father wasn't the person he'd thought he was. And that had been his major concern until Akemi pointed something else out.

"Are you going to try and find her? Your sister." She'd asked.

It took Akemi saying it out loud for Ishigami to realize what this really meant. He'd thought that Akemi was his only family, and he'd been happy with that. But all this time he'd really had a half-sister somewhere. He didn't know anything about this girl, she was the product of an affair with some woman who was not his mother but still...

He did want to meet her, even if it wasn't a happy reunion and only a brief meeting. Still, this girl was the only flesh-and-blood he had, and he wanted to see what that felt like. Together, he and Akemi found a detective agency to track her down. He wanted this private and separate from his work. If most of the people he worked with found out, they would definitely somehow get involved. Part of the profession, it seemed, was a natural instinct to interfere.

For several weeks, Ishigami didn't think about it very much while he let the PIs he hired do their work. He worked hard and happily enjoyed married life. It was blissful, even with the uncertainty of 'Mai' hanging about. When they got a call from Nozomu-san, Ishigami was able to act calmly. As they sat across the desk and waited to hear, he managed to keep his exterior cool and calm. On the inside, he was actually nervous. How could he not be? He had no idea what was going to happen, even if they had found her. And if they hadn't...he would be really disappointed. Hideki felt a small, warm, hand clasp his own. He looked over in surprise at Akemi, who squeezed his hand and gave him a reassuring smile. That was all he needed, how simple. This perfect, loving woman made him feel so comfortable that he realized no matter what happened it would be okay. Because he did have family now, he had someone who would always be by his side.

"We found her." Nozomu-san said, smiling. Ishigami felt himself stiffen a little - this was real. The detective handed Ishigami a small folder and he took it with a less-than-steady hand.

"Mai Okada, 21. She's a student at Daito Bunka University. Raised by a single mother who passed away last year. She works part time at several different jobs to pay for school, it seems. Single, lives alone."

Ishigami looked at the data in front of him, slowly processing it. Mostly, he couldn't take his eyes off of the picture clipped in the corner. It looked like a school ID photo, and probably was. Mai didn't resemble him very much, or his father. The only thing they did share was the black hair and eyes. Other than that, she had soft features in comparison to his sharp ones.

"I was expecting glasses." Akemi said, breaking the silence. Nozomu laughed, and Hideki smiled - he was grateful for her presence once again.


End file.
